CMAP Points the Way to Converged Cable Services

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As cable operators move closer to all-IP delivery, converged multiservice access platform (CMAP) technology is emerging as a key to eliminating the barriers between video and data services to enable more efficient use of network bandwidth and the creation of new services that combine high-quality video with Internet-based offerings, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider (www.heavyreading.com/cable), a subscription research service from Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

CMAP: A Milestone on the Road to Cable Convergence explains CMAP, investigating the goals and major drivers behind the platform, as well as its implications for cable operators and suppliers. Included is a look at known CMAP activity by five suppliers that are leaders in CMTS and edge QAM technology.

For a list of companies covered in this report, http://img.lightreading.com/cii/pdf/cii0411_companies.pdf

"CMAP is a logical extension of existing headend technology that merges two capabilities, CMTS and edge QAM, into one," notes Craig Leddy, research analyst with Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider and author of the report. "Over the past several years, MSOs have been transitioning to all-digital delivery – adding more digital video services, increasing broadband capacity and speed, and studying a potential migration to all-IP service delivery. CMAP fits into all of that."

The industry needs CMAP to keep up with the rising tide of broadband traffic and IP video, and to keep expanding video services such as HD and VoD, Leddy says. "Cable's CMTS and edge QAM suppliers have already been addressing the capacity issues by developing high-density, lower-cost solutions. Now their innovations can be merged into a single platform," he continues. "CMAP fits into cable's all-digital transition and is a step toward migration to an all-IP environment. If cable goes all-digital, let alone all-IP, it could create new opportunities that have not even been thought about yet."

Key findings of CMAP: A Milestone on the Road to Cable Convergence include the following:

• CMAP is an emerging headend technology that combines data and video functions on a single delivery platform, as a step toward an all-IP environment.
• CMAP is expected to help MSOs manage increasing IP video traffic and advanced services, while lowering delivery costs.
• Comcast spurred the development of CMAP by creating product specs; other MSOs are supporting CMAP in various ways.
• CMAP can help remove technical and MSO cultural barriers between video and data services and promote cable convergence.
• CMTS and edge QAM suppliers are circling the product market, but pricing pressure will be heavy.
• CMAP trials are planned for late 2011, with initial deployments in 2012.

CMAP: A Milestone on the Road to Cable Convergence is available as part of an annual subscription (six issues) to Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900.

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About Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com)

Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to carriers, service providers, and vendors. Our remit is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next-generation hardware and software. This information is compiled via exhaustive surveys of both vendors' products and service-provider decision makers.

About Light Reading Communications Network (www.lightreading.com)

Founded in 2000, the Light Reading Communications Network is the world's leading research-led integrated media company serving the global communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technological and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, and TelcoTV Asia, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Europe, and The Tower Summit @ CTIA, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives in the US, Europe, India, and China. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

SOURCE Heavy Reading